The recent data comparing academic performance by students in MPS and students in choice schools obviously raises serious questions, many of which have already been debated in the media. My two cents might be a little late, but here they are anyway.
For many, many years now education research has shown a link between income and educational attainment at all levels. There are many reasons for this. As a school, more money means more resources, whether it comes from the tax base or tuition. It means the ability to provide all kinds of things for students—sports programs, arts programs, better use of technology, language programs, and various college preparatory programs to name just a few. Practically any school is going to show strong academic achievement when it has a lot of resources.
But it’s not just about the school, any school. What happens at home is even more important. Higher household income often means college educated parents with expectations that their children will excel in school and go on to college themselves. Education is supported at home in various ways, especially through parental involvement. The structures that support high academic achievement are already in place and to be blunt, many of the struggles urban youth face just aren’t an issue.
So, maybe the motivation for school choice is good in the ideal. Students from lower performing schools (mostly in lower-income areas) are able to attend better schools and level the field of life, at least a little. The data is revealing, though. Since test scores would indicate that many MPS schools are on par with the other schools, the path to improving education in Wisconsin gets trickier.
My feelings about standardized testing aside, if it’s true that overall academic performance is fairly similar between MPS students and students in voucher schools, then I see very little argument to expand the voucher program. Why not invest more time, energy, and resources into improving MPS instead of trying to reinvent the wheel—especially when it turns out that the wheel might be a little flat, but is hardly unusable. There may well be MPS schools that should be closed. There are also good schools and even “so-so” schools that could be great schools with more support.
Besides, the issues that plague many struggling urban schools go well beyond the classroom. Moving those children to another school, even a “great” school, can only do so much if they come home to a broken life. The ills of public schools are the ills of society. Poverty, crime, hunger, lack of stability at home and many of the other things that hurt our children have to be addressed. Fix those things and we all might be amazed at what our kids can achieve.
